Man holds Rio bus riders hostage in passion crime

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, Nov 10 (Reuters) A Brazilian man armed with a pistol held hostage his ex-wife and about 20 other people on a suburban bus today, in a drama televised live nationally and described by police as a crime of passion.

The man had released several dozen passengers from the crammed bus, and five hours of negotiations with police over freeing the remaining people had yet to bear fruit. Officers brought the man's mother and sister to help with the talks.

A passenger alerted police about the hostage situation in the peak morning rush hour. The bus was moved to the curb under police escort.

''Our strategy is to win by having him tired, and he is already showing signs of emotional and physical fatigue,'' said Helio Dias, a senior police officer involved in the negotiations in Nova Iguacu on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.

''The success depends first of all on the main victim, who is his ex-wife,'' he added. Police deflated the tires of the bus, which remained on the curb with its curtains shut.

Police quoted passengers as saying the man accused his ex-wife of having cheated on him and threatened to kill her and then commit suicide. He hit the woman several times.

The hostage situation brought back memories of a June 2000 drama when an armed robber -- a survivor of a notorious 1993 massacre of street kids by a death squad -- hijacked a bus in Rio's upper-class Gavea district and held several people hostage for over four hours.

A botched police attempt to shoot the hostage-taker ended in a female passenger getting killed. Police seized the man alive but strangled him on the way to the hospital.

REUTERS SB PM2242